This is my absolute favorite explanation of what it means to be creative. And intense. I have been immersed in the world of writing for more than a couple of years now, meeting writers in every genre and at every stage in their career. And I can say that pretty much everyone I have met is intense to some degree – they all live the above poem.

I think emotional intensity refers to how a person interacts with their world. At its best, it enables the reader to bring the level of emotion to their stories that creates “voice”, it allows for connections between the reader and writer, between the writer and the world, and it gives the writer the perseverance and drive necessary to make it in this crazy business.

But, at its worst, it becomes the internal turmoil that has the power to consume the writer from time to time – sometimes with highly dysfunctional and disastrous results.

But good – or bad – it is ultimately who were are! The trick, learning to manage it.

Learning to take the good aspects of intensity – the ability to fully suck the marrow from life and pour it onto the page – and manage it against the bad. Learning to balance the demands of a writer’s life – not to mention the crazy roller coaster ride of emotions that happens regardless of emotional intensity.

Learning to harness the intensity into a tool for writing.

Yep, managing emotional intensity is the key!

What are your thoughts? Are you intense? Odds are really good that you are.

12 comments:

I think first we need to recognize that we are intense. Until my college experience, I knew I was a little different, but didn't realize in what way. I knew I had strong emotions, but I'd never connected them to my creativity. Knowing that, I've been able to pour my emotions into something rather than have them running amok. I think that's why it's so important writers write, singers sing artists create art etc. When I don't, that when I notice my emotions getting out of control.

Though there is a conscious decision to keep them in check as well. The above really helps me. A lot!

Considering I cry at almost everything (yep, even Kleenex commercials), I'd say I'm emotionally intense. And it took me several drafts of my wip before I quit crying at certain scenes. I still tear up at the ending. I don't know. Maybe my hormones went wacky with three pregnancies!

More than intensity, maybe it's extreme empathy we writers feel? I know I can't watch sit-coms because I feel so painfully embarrassed during the usual, de rigueur Moment of Humiliation for the Main Character. And yes, sometimes, while I'm reading, I will read through my fingers, just as if I were watching an intense, I-can't-watch-this scene of a movie.

Yeah, uh, "intense" doesn't even begin to describe it. But I've come to accept that it's part of my makeup and lends itself to my creative mind. I can be pretty happy with that, even if it causes some awkwardness with family and friends who don't understand it.

L.T., one way is to make sure I'm not being redundant. Forcing myself to pick and choose my words carefully, so that each one contributes something new to the reader's understanding, helps me reduce over-writing and over-intensity. Another way is to read it out loud and see how it sounds.

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